The Chief
BY DUNCAN FREEMAN | January 6, 2025
The head of a union representing FDNY EMS employees is advising his members who work at three stations within Manhattan’s congestion pricing zone to request transfers to avoid the toll. Oren Barzilay, the president of Local 2507 of District Council 37, which represents EMTs, paramedics and fire protection inspectors, said his members are already suffering from “poverty wages” and will be “pickpocketed” by the new tax.
“We are mandated by our employer, the city, where to work and we have zero option to work remote,” the union president said in a statement released last week. “FDNY’s financially struggling EMTs and Paramedics can simply no longer afford to protect the inhabitants of Manhattan from 60th Street to the Battery, and our members have been asking for transfers out of the three stations serving Midtown and Lower Manhattan — Station 4, Station 7 and Station 8.”
The tolling program, which kicked off Sunday just after midnight, institutes a $9 charge on most personal vehicles entering Manhattan’s central business district 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends. For the around 270 EMS workers based at the three stations within the congestion pricing zone, that could mean $45 in additional charges per week for union members who drive into work. It is unclear how many of the EMS workers drive into Manhattan.
FDNY EMTs earn $18.94 on average per hour according to the union, and have been working under the terms of a collective bargaining agreement that expired in 2022. The two EMS unions have been in talks with city labor officials on a new contract but the two sides have made little progress.
‘Public safety time-bomb’
Barzilay did not say how many of his members have requested transfers out of the congestion pricing zone but he is urging more EMS workers to request transfers to stations outside of the borough. The FDNY grants transfers based on seniority, meaning those who are granted transfers will be among the more experienced EMTs and paramedics.
The union leader added that congestion pricing is a “public safety time-bomb waiting to detonate.”
“Mark my words [congestion pricing] will likely have a large, negative impact on public safety that will soon enough lead to a rush by Albany and City Hall’s countless and well-paid government funded spin doctors to point the blame and fingers at each other, as they always do,” Barzilay said.
The FDNY deferred comment on Local 2507’s advisory to City Hall.
A spokesperson for the mayor said the FDNY has not yet seen a spike in transfer requests and that transfer requests can take months to be completed. “Ensuring public safety is a top priority for the Adams administration,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We do not expect any negative impacts to the department’s ability to respond to emergencies.”
‘Will expedite the exodus’
One longtime FDNY paramedic in Brooklyn who requested anonymity because of the department’s prohibition on employees speaking with the media said they have heard that several experienced colleagues based in the toll zone have put in transfer requests. The paramedic said if the transfers are granted it would “result in a significant loss of expertise in the area.”
Vincent Variale, president of the EMS officers’ union, said an excess number of transfers out of lower Manhattan could create vacancy issues that lead to increased response times and, in turn, delayed care for New Yorkers. Variale said it was “understandable” that some EMS workers wanted to transfer out of the toll zone, but the union leader said he’s “not telling officers what to do,” and his union did not officially advise its members to request transfers.
But Anthony Almojera, the vice president of the officers’ union, said he has advised EMS workers in the congestion pricing zone for whom the toll would be a “financial burden” to request transfers out.
“This tax on the lowest paid first responders (EMS) is a slap in the face to an already demoralized and disenfranchised workforce,” Almojera, a lieutenant paramedic, said in a text message. “This tone deaf mayor, city and state not advocating for us in EMS is just par for the course and will expedite the exodus that is currently underway in EMS.”
Variale added that the toll was a “significant amount of money” for struggling first responders and urged lawmakers to alter the rules of the toll so that all first responders working in the congestion pricing zone are exempt.
Barzilay, along with leaders of other unions representing first responders, have called for an exemption as well.
“These heroes of the pandemic have been completely forgotten by New York’s elected officials. Already they are barely making minimum wage, many are forced to survive on food stamps, handouts, sleep on the couches or basements of friends and relatives, because of the sky-high costs of New York ” Barzilay said in the press release. “Actions speak louder than words and this tax is a lose-lose for the FDNY EMS and public safety.”